Child safety seat with side impact protection

ABSTRACT

Child safety seats are used for the safe transport of children in vehicles. The child safety seats known from prior art often offer only insufficient protection in the case of a side impact. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a child safety seat that improves the protective effect of the child safety seat in the case of a side impact. This object is solved by a child safety seat with side impact protection according to the invention. Such a child safety seat comprises at least one element absorbing and/or transmitting energy which is arranged and designed to be transferred from a rest position to a functioning position to absorb a laterally impacting energy in the functioning position.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to European Patent Application No.09009160.4, filed Jul. 14, 2009, which is hereby incorporated herein inits entirety by reference.

The subject matter of the present invention is a child safety seat withside impact protection.

From prior art, child safety seats for the safe transport of children invehicles have been known long since. Usually, such child safety seatsare fastened to one of the seats of a vehicle. In so doing, they areeither fixed by a safety belt or anchored on the vehicle seat by meansof a particular fastening mechanism.

In both cases, the relative movement of the child safety seat withrespect to the vehicle seat is to be minimised by the fastening. In thecase of a heavy acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle, such amovement may nevertheless occur.

In the case of a heavy braking process or the impact of the vehicle onan obstacle in longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the child safetyseat may consequently, as compared to the vehicle, be decelerated in adelayed manner, so that the child safety seat is displaced on thevehicle seat in driving direction.

As a rule, the child safety seat is arranged in the vehicle such that itwill not hit on an obstacle in the interior of the vehicle during thisdisplacement movement. Correspondingly, the relative movement of theseat in longitudinal direction of the vehicle is thus usuallydecelerated and restricted by the seat fastening means.

Fundamentally different is the situation in the case of a relativemovement of the child safety seat in transverse direction of thevehicle. Such a movement may, for instance, be caused by the impact ofanother vehicle on the side of the vehicle in transverse direction ofthe vehicle. Since the child safety seat is usually arranged on one ofthe side seats of the vehicle, it regularly has a minor lateral distanceto the inner side of the vehicle. This distance is, as a rule, notsufficient to sufficiently decelerate the relative movement of the childsafety seat by means of the seat fastening means prior to an impact ofthe child safety seat on the inner side of the vehicle.

In the case of a side impact on the vehicle comprising the child safetyseat there will hence be the danger that the child safety seat hits onthe inner side of the vehicle at a speed that is not unsubstantial. Inthe case of this side impact the lateral movement of the child safetyseat is stopped within very short time, which corresponds to a strongdeceleration. This deceleration in turn causes a substantial force onthe child in the child safety seat by which the child may be stronglyinjured.

Similar injuries of the child may be caused by an impact of objects onthe child safety seat in lateral direction. These may, for instance, bepieces of luggage that are taken along in the vehicle, or else anotherchild safety seat. By the impulse transfer from the moving object to thechild safety seat which is related with such an impact, the child safetyseat is accelerated. The effect of this is, similar as described above,again a force on the child safety seat which potentially endangers thechild.

A side impact of the child safety seat on an obstacle or of an object onthe child safety seat therefore carries substantial danger of injury forthe child transported in the child safety seat.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a childsafety seat that improves the protective effect of the child safety seatin the case of a side impact of various kinds.

This object is solved by the child safety seat with side impactprotection in accordance with the invention with the features of claim1. Advantageous further developments of the present invention areindicated in sub claims 2 to 14.

The child safety seat with side impact protection according to theinvention comprises at least one element absorbing and/or transmittingenergy which is arranged and designed to be transferred from a restposition to a functioning position to absorb a laterally impactingenergy in the functioning position.

The child safety seat may particularly be designed in the form of aninfant carrier comprising a carrying handle. The element absorbingand/or transmitting energy will then expediently be arranged at thiscarrying handle. In accordance with the invention it may, however, alsobe arranged in other regions of the child safety seat, in particular inthe lower side region.

Advantageously, the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy ispivotally mounted and is designed in an arc-shaped manner. By a pivotalmovement the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy is transferredfrom the rest position to the functioning position and vice versa.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the elementabsorbing and/or transmitting energy has the shape of a folding band. Inthe rest position, the folding band is substantially stretched and istransferred to the functioning position by shortening the distance ofits ends.

In a further preferred embodiment of the present invention the elementabsorbing and/or transmitting energy is designed to be substantiallycylinder-shaped, wherein the transfer between the rest position and thefunctioning position is advantageously performed by means of a winding.

In accordance with the invention the child safety seat may be designedsuch that the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy is, when thechild safety seat is positioned at its destination, preferably the seatof a vehicle, to be transferred manually from the rest position to thefunctioning position. Correspondingly, the element absorbing and/ortransmitting energy may be transferred manually from the functioningposition to the rest position when the child safety seat is removed fromits destination. In accordance with the invention it is also possiblethat the transfer to the functioning position is not performed.

In accordance with the invention the child safety seat may also bedesigned such that the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy isautomatically transferred from the rest position to the functioningposition when the child safety seat is positioned at its destination.Likewise, the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy isadvantageously transferred automatically from the functioning positionto the rest position when the child safety seat is removed from itsdestination.

A child safety seat with side impact protection according to theinvention may comprise a plurality of elements absorbing and/ortransmitting energy. By the fact that these are designed to betransferred between a rest position and a functioning position it isensured that the side impact protection is put into practice without anoteworthy permanent increase of the dimensions of the child safety seatabove all in lateral direction. This is particularly advantageous sincethe child safety seat is possibly also to be used outside the vehiclewhere a compact appearance of the child safety seat is especiallydesirable. Also inside the vehicle a minimisation of the space utilisedby the child safety seat is aimed for so as to avoid, for instance,disturbances of a possible seat neighbour or an unnecessary reduction ofthe loading space. Therefore, it may be advantageous according to theinvention to bring, from a plurality of elements absorbing and/ortransmitting energy, only particular elements absorbing and/ortransmitting energy into the functioning position in the vehicle, and toleave the remaining elements absorbing and/or transmitting energy in therest position.

The transferring of the elements absorbing and/or transmitting energybetween the rest position and the functioning position may either beperformed manually or automatically, or else as a combination of thesetwo possibilities.

If it is performed manually, the user of the child safety seat has totake care himself/herself that the desired elements absorbing and/ortransmitting energy are brought to the functioning position when thechild safety seat is positioned in a vehicle. If an improved side impactprotection is no longer necessary or desired, the elements absorbingand/or transmitting energy may be returned to the rest position again.

In order to increase the comfort of use of the child safety seat or toavoid a maloperation, means may be provided which take care that inparticular specific elements absorbing and/or transmitting energy aretransferred from the rest position to the functioning position when thechild safety seat is positioned at its destination, for instance, theseat of a vehicle. Correspondingly, care may be taken that the elementsabsorbing and/or transmitting energy are brought to the rest positionwhen the child safety seat is removed from its destination.

Such means may in particular be mechanical or electric means. Thus, theelements absorbing and/or transmitting energy might be transferred tothe functioning position, for instance, via a toothed rack drive or viaa lever drive when the child safety seat is fastened. It is alsoconceivable that a contact is closed on fastening of the child safetyseat, so that, for instance, an electromagnet is activated whichinitiates the transfer of the elements absorbing and/or transmittingenergy to the functioning position. An electric motor adjusting theelements absorbing and/or transmitting energy might also be activatedvia the contact.

If the child safety seat at its destination is anchored in a baseelement into which it is, for instance, pressed, put, or shifted, thispressing, putting, or shifting may be used to bring the elementsabsorbing and/or transmitting energy into the functioning position viathe means described in the last paragraph.

Even if the child safety seat is not anchored in a base element, butfastened on a vehicle seat, for instance, with a safety belt,corresponding means can be used. In particular, the pressure exerted onthe child safety seat by the safety belt could be used to bring theelements absorbing and/or transmitting energy into the functioningposition.

In an advantageous further development of the present invention, thechild safety seat is equipped with sensors. These sensors may, forinstance, be suited to initiate the transfer of elements absorbingand/or transmitting energy to different positions as a function ofparticular parameters.

The sensors could, for instance, be adapted to detect that and at whichplace the child safety seat is positioned in a vehicle so as to thusinitiate the transfer of particular elements absorbing and/ortransmitting energy to the functioning position. Likewise, sensors areconceivable which detect accelerations of the child safety seat inparticular in lateral direction, so that the elements absorbing and/ortransmitting energy are brought into the functioning position only oncethese accelerations exceed particular threshold values. It is alsoconceivable that the elements absorbing and/or transmitting energy arereturned to the rest position once the threshold values are under-run.

The design and arrangement of the elements absorbing and/or transmittingenergy is decisive for the side impact protection of a child safety seataccording to the invention.

One object of these elements is to decelerate an undesired lateralmovement, for instance, an absolute movement of the child safety seat ora relative movement of an object toward the child safety seat. To thisend, the elements absorbing and/or transmitting energy withdraw kineticenergy from this movement in that the elements absorbing and/ortransmitting energy absorb it and convert it to some other form ofenergy, for instance, heat.

Another object of the elements absorbing and/or transmitting energy isto introduce forces acting laterally on the child safety seat intosupporting elements or to transmit kinetic energy from a lateralmovement to such elements, respectively. In accordance with theinvention, the energy to be transmitted is transmitted by the elementsabsorbing and/or transmitting energy to the child safety seat or thebase element, and finally transferred to the car body structure vianon-positive and/or positive elements.

Such an element absorbing and/or transmitting energy therefore has to bedesigned such that it is suited to absorb kinetic energy and to convertit to some other form of energy or to transmit it to supporting elements(e.g. ISOFIX® anchoring and car body).

Expediently the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy is designedsuch that it converts kinetic energy to heat preferably by plasticdeformation or by friction. In the case of a movement of the childsafety seat in lateral direction toward an object it is important todecelerate this movement as smoothly as possible so as to avoid tooheavy a deceleration of the child safety seat. Therefore, it has to beensured for this case that the absorption of the kinetic energy takesplace sufficiently slowly. For the case of a movement of an objecttoward the child safety seat, the speed of the energy absorption isquite negligible. In practice, however, there will usually exist aninteraction of these two movements, i.e. a movement of the child safetyseat in the direction toward an object (for instance, the inner side ofa vehicle door), and a movement of an object toward the child safetyseat. Therefore, it will basically be of advantage to pay attention tothe speed of energy absorption when designing the elements absorbingand/or transmitting energy.

If the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy is intended totransmit kinetic energy predominantly to a supporting element, it willhave to be designed such that it does not deform significantly in thecase of a side impact. To this end, a suitable material has to be chosenfor the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy. This may, forinstance, be a conventional thermoplastic material, carbon fibrereinforced plastics, alloys, or a combination thereof.

To ensure the conversion or transmission of the kinetic energy it isexpedient that the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy ispositioned at a suitable place at the child safety seat. If the childsafety seat is anchored in a base element at its destination, it may beadvantageous in accordance with the invention to provide elementsabsorbing and/or transmitting energy at this base element, too. Thearrangement of the elements absorbing and/or transmitting energy wouldbe performed in a way similar as with the embodiments explained indetail in the following.

Transport devices for mammals, in particular for dogs or cats, or forother small animals or pets are also considered to be child safety seatsas defined by the present invention. A side impact protection accordingto the invention may increase the safety of such a transport devicesignificantly.

Except in a vehicle, a child safety seat according to the invention mayalso be used in other transport means such as in trains, in planes, on aboat, on a bicycle, or on a perambulator frame, and prove its advantagesthere.

The conceptual operating mode and some preferred embodiments of thepresent invention will be explained in more detail by means of drawings.There show:

FIG. 1 a child safety seat with side impact protection according to theinvention with an element absorbing and/or transmitting energy in restposition;

FIG. 2 a child safety seat with side impact protection according to theinvention with an element absorbing and/or transmitting energy infunctioning position;

FIG. 3 a child safety seat with regions in which an element absorbingand/or transmitting energy is preferably arranged being emphasised;

FIG. 4 a perspective illustration of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention in rest position;

FIG. 5 a perspective illustration of the embodiment of FIG. 4 infunctioning position;

FIG. 6 a front view of the embodiment of FIG. 5 in functioning position;

FIG. 7 a schematic illustration of a further preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 8 a perspective illustration of the embodiment of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 a perspective illustration of the embodiment of FIG. 8 at thecarrying handle of an infant carrier;

FIG. 10 an exploded view of a further preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 11 a perspective illustration of the embodiment of FIG. 10 at thecarrying handle of an infant carrier.

The child safety seat with side impact protection 1 according to theinvention as illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises an element absorbing and/ortransmitting energy 2 which is in rest position 3. FIG. 2 shows a childsafety seat 1 according to the invention with the element absorbingand/or transmitting energy 2 in functioning position 4.

FIG. 3 shows an infant carrier 7 with a carrying handle 8. Dashed linesillustrate regions of the child safety seat in which a mounting of theelement absorbing and/or transmitting energy 2 is of particularadvantage. These are the fastening region of the carrying handle at theinfant carrier 11, the side arm 12 of the carrying handle, and the lowerside region 13 of the infant carrier. In the region 13 the carriermaterial of the infant carrier is not covered by any pads, so that thisregion is particularly suited to incorporate elements absorbing and/ortransmitting energy 2. In regions of the child safety seat which arecovered by pads, the positioning of elements absorbing and/ortransmitting energy 2 is basically also possible.

FIGS. 4 to 6 show detailed views of the preferred embodiment 100 of thepresent invention which has already been illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.In this embodiment the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy 101is designed in an arc-shaped manner and is pivotally mounted at thechild safety seat. In the rest position 3 shown in FIG. 4, it snugglesto the carrying handle 8 in the region 11. For transfer to thefunctioning position 4 shown in FIG. 5, it is pivoted about approx. 90°in the direction of the arrow 102, so that it projects in an arc-shapedmanner in lateral direction from the region 11. FIG. 6 shows a frontview of this element absorbing and/or transmitting energy 101 in thefunctioning position 4. The element absorbing and/or transmitting energy101 may be designed such that it is adapted to absorb kinetic energy bydeformation. It may, for instance, be designed such that, in the case ofa deformation, kinetic energy is converted to heat by inner friction. Tothis end, a suitable material such as a specific plastic material has tobe chosen for the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy 101.According to the invention, the element absorbing and/or transmittingenergy 101 may, however, also be designed such that a persistentdeformation is basically not possible so as to absorb the laterallyimpacting energy substantially completely and transmit it to thesupporting elements.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic illustration of a further preferred embodiment200 of the present invention in which the element absorbing and/ortransmitting energy is designed in the form of a folding band 201. Here,the child safety seat 1 (not illustrated) comprises guide means 203 inwhich sliding elements 202 are mounted to which the folding band 201 isfixed. The sliding elements 202 are adapted to be shifted in thedirection of the arrows 206. In the rest position 3 (not illustrated)the folding band 201 is stretched and the sliding elements 202 have amaximum distance to each other. For transferring to the functioningposition 4 pursuant to FIG. 7, the distance between the sliding elements202 is shortened, so that the respective regions of the folding band 201positioned between two sliding elements bend outward from the planespanned by the guiding means 203.

Advantageously, the folding band 201 is designed such that only one ofits ends is shiftable. This end then comprises an end element 204 thatis adapted to be locked via locking means 205. FIG. 8 shows aperspective illustration of this embodiment 200. The transfer of thefolding band 201 between the rest position 3 and the functioningposition 4 is performed via a shifting of the end element 204 in thedirection of the arrow 207. By the locking means 205 the folding band201 can be locked in different positions.

Advantageously, the folding band is arranged in the side region 12 ofthe carrying handle 8 of an infant carrier 7. This arrangement isillustrated in FIG. 9. The folding band 201 is here in the functioningposition 4 and can be transferred to the rest position 3 (notillustrated) by shifting the end element 204 in the direction of thearrow 207.

It may be expedient to replace the sliding elements 202 by rollingelements, so that they do not slide but roll in the guiding means 203.It may also be advantageous to provide distance elements, for instance,at the sliding elements 202 which take care that the sliding elements202 can be approximated to each other up to a particular pairwisedistance only. This distance then defines the functioning position 4, sothat it is easier for the user of the child safety seat to adjust it.

In this embodiment 200 kinetic energy may be absorbed, similar to theembodiment 100, by a deformation of the folding band 201, and beconverted to heat. It may, however, also be of advantage to design thesliding elements 202 and the locking means 205 such that they can beshifted in the functioning position 4 with increased friction only. Theconversion of kinetic energy to heat will then take place less in thefolding band 201, but preferably at the sliding elements 202, theguiding means 203, and the locking means 205.

In a further preferred embodiment 300 of the present invention, theelement absorbing and/or transmitting energy 2 is substantiallycylinder-shaped. FIG. 10 shows an exploded view of such an elementabsorbing and/or transmitting energy 2. Here, the element absorbingand/or transmitting energy 2 has the shape of a cylinder 301 at whichguiding pins 302 are arranged. The cylinder is guided in a cylinderguide 303 comprising recesses 304 in the form of connecting members forthe guiding pins 302. In the rest position 3 (not illustrated) theguiding pins 302 are positioned in the rest regions 305 of the recesses304. By rotating the cylinder 301 in the direction of the arrow 307 theguiding pins 302 are guided out of these regions, so that the cylindercan be shifted in the cylinder guide 303 from the rest position 3 (notillustrated) in the direction of the arrow 308 to the functioningposition 4 (not illustrated). Preferably, this shifting 308 is driven bya spring. By a further rotation of the cylinder 301 in the direction ofthe arrow 309 the guiding pins 302 are taken to the functioning regions306 of the recesses, so that the element absorbing and/or transmittingenergy 2 is anchored in the functioning position 4.

In this embodiment 300 the element absorbing and/or transmitting energy2 is preferably arranged in the region 11 of an infant carrier 7. Thisarrangement is illustrated in FIG. 11. The recessed grips 310 facilitatethe twisting and shifting of the cylinder 301.

Also in the embodiment 300 kinetic energy can, in analogy to theembodiments 100 and 200, be absorbed and converted to heat by adeformation of the cylinder 301. It may, however, also be expedient todesign the cylinder 301 and the guiding pins 302 such that the guidingpins 302 sever from the cylinder 301 during an impact and in so doingkinetic energy is converted to heat.

That which is claimed is:
 1. A child safety seat with side impactprotection comprising an infant carrier and a carrying handle, the childsafety seat comprising: at least one energy absorbing element mounted tothe carrying handle, wherein the at least one energy absorbing elementis configured to be transferred between a rest position and afunctioning position, wherein the at least one energy absorbing elementis configured to absorb a laterally impacting energy when disposed inthe functioning position, wherein the at least one energy absorbingelement is configured to project outwardly from the carrying handle whendisposed in the functioning position.
 2. The child safety seat accordingto claim 1, wherein said energy absorbing element is arranged in a lowerside region of said child safety seat.
 3. The child safety seataccording to claim 1, wherein said energy absorbing element is pivotallymounted.
 4. The child safety seat according to claim 1, wherein saidenergy absorbing element is designed in an arc-shaped manner.
 5. Thechild safety seat according to claim 1, wherein said energy absorbingelement has the shape of a folding band.
 6. The child safety seataccording to claim 1, wherein said energy absorbing element is designedsubstantially cylinder-shaped.
 7. The child safety seat according toclaim 6, wherein the energy absorbing element is configured to betransferred between said rest position and said functioning position viaa winding.
 8. The child safety seat according to claim 1, wherein saidenergy absorbing element is configured to be transferred from said restposition to said functioning position manually.
 9. The child safety seataccording to claim 1, wherein said energy absorbing element isconfigured to be transferred from said functioning position to said restposition manually.
 10. The child safety seat according to claim 1,wherein said energy absorbing element is configured to be automaticallytransferred from said rest position to said functioning position whensaid child safety seat is positioned at its destination.
 11. The childsafety seat according to claim 10, wherein the destination is a seat ofa vehicle.
 12. The child safety seat according to claim 1, wherein saidenergy absorbing element is configured to be automatically transferredfrom said functioning position to said rest position when said childsafety seat is removed from its destination.
 13. The child safety seataccording to claim 1, wherein said energy absorbing element is arrangedin a side region of the carrying handle.
 14. A child safety seat withside impact protection comprising an infant carrier and a carryinghandle, the child safety seat comprising at least one means forabsorbing or transmitting energy mounted to the carrying handle, whereinthe means for absorbing or transmitting energy is configured to betransferred between a rest position and a functioning position andconfigured to absorb a laterally impacting energy when disposed in thefunctioning position, wherein the means for absorbing or transmittingenergy is configured to project outwardly from the carrying handle whendisposed in the functioning position.
 15. The child safety seataccording to claim 14, wherein said means for absorbing or transmittingenergy is automatically transferred from said functioning position tosaid rest position when said child safety seat is positioned at itsdestination.
 16. The child safety seat according to claim 14, whereinsaid means for absorbing or transmitting energy is arranged in a sideregion of the carrying handle.
 17. A child safety seat with side impactprotection comprising at least one energy absorbing element configuredto be transferred between a rest position and a functioning position,wherein the energy absorbing element is configured to absorb a laterallyimpacting energy when disposed in the functioning position, wherein saidenergy absorbing element is configured to automatically transfer fromsaid rest position to said functioning position when said child safetyseat is positioned at one of a vehicle seat or a base of the childsafety seat.
 18. The child safety seat according to claim 17, whereinthe child safety seat is an infant carrier with a carrying handle, andwherein the enemy absorbing element is mounted to said carrying handle.19. The child safety seat according to claim 18, wherein said energyabsorbing element is arranged in a side region of the carrying handle.